Two Hundred And Sixty-Nine *Contains Status – Akio, Aiko, Eri, Shaeula, Hyacinth*
A grim Foresight? This feels similar to when the yakuza attacked the shrine but worse. And it feels… imminent. There’s no way I can keep this to myself, but… as I stood and retrieved the mirror that had fallen from Ren-san’s numb hands, I looked up to see Yamato-san hurrying over to us, a frown on his face.
“Just what have you done?” he asked, looking at the surrounding Territory, which had largely been drained of the indigo light energies, although due to the rather generous supply of elental light Kiyomizu-dera possessed, faint flecks of deep blue were drifting up from the surroundings already, though it would likely take many months or longer to reach the density of before. “The light has gone.”
“For now. It’ll return, and it isn’t like you were using it properly.” at my firm tone, Ren-san and the twins made noises of shock at my lack of respect for Yamato-san. But it’s not about respect. I respect people, but I’m also not part of their faction, so I have no need to bow and scrape. Besides, he owes … “If I’m not mistaken, you did say I could have the light energy here. I still think it’s insufficient for my aid, but… well, I want to be on good terms with you and your father.”
Mine-san, who was lying on her back, her face twisted into an expression of pain, let out a small laugh. “He’s got you there, Yamato-sama. I, like, totally rember you saying he could have the light energy. I’m not sure how they did what they did though… I started sucking it in like they were, and all its done is hurt and make feel sick. Like, a total bumr, right?”
“Hang on, let take a look.” My Eye flared orange, and I could see that her clumsy efforts had indeed caused noticeable damage around her root chakra, spreading up towards the sacral and solar plexus chakras. “Yeah, that isn’t good.” I declared. “You can’t just force this. It takes significant effort and understanding to make it work.” That and good eyes and so luck. I couldn’t help but smile as I rembered Shaeula and her efforts to teach the wind elent, and the damage I suffered. Sure, now we have it down to a bit of a fine art, having a lot of experience, Chirurgery, Ether Healing, her and my Eyes, and now even telepathy and ntal linking. Really, we have a set-up few can likely replicate, though I don’t want to believe only we can have this level of success. Others might have different thods that work. Even so, I doubt many are more efficient…
“Hey, no laughing at . I thought I’d, like, give it a shot? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?” Mine-san protested. I knelt down beside her and asked her if I could touch her briefly to heal her injuries. She gave quite the look, before nodding, piercings jingling softly. “Okay, but no funny business, right? Though I guess, in front of the girls over there, that’s like, not a good plan, right?”
“True. They’d be distinctly unimpressed.” I let aether flow, starting to repair the damage. My stocks were diminished, as I had to keep supplying the twins to keep the link working, as well as perform noticeable healing in everyone, but my ability to generate and store aether was pretty damn large nowadays, so I could spare a little more. “And all done. I’ve flushed the remaining light elent and patched you up. Really, I suggest starting with earth elent if you need to. You have affinity already since you are a nature user, and it’s the first chakra in your body.”
“Really? Uh… chakras, right. Sounds new age. I was kind of into that, like, a few years back. I think I still have the jewellery sowhere. Oh well, thanks again, I guess. That’s two I owe you.” She let help her to her feet, before she brushed herself down and adjusted her hakama.
“That is all very well, but just what have you done?” Yamato-san persisted. “It sounds like you have all grown stronger by doing whatever it was you were doing.”
Everyone else was letting handle this, though Shaeula was looking at Yamato-san with a rather baleful gleam in her eye, not liking the way he was talking to . So I’ll need to sort this out quickly. I turned and tossed the mirror back to Ren-san, who caught it weakly, fumbling and nearly dropping it, though a simple fall wouldn’t damage such a mystical item. “Well, yes. Increasing the elents one can use is fundantal, at least in my training school. I expect to talk more about it at Conclave. Though as Mine-san here found out, going in unprepared can be harmful, though at her level, it's likely there would have been little lasting damage and she’d have recovered in ti once she stopped doing it. Although if you blindly try to mix clashing elents, then bad things can certainly happen…” When I tried to learn fire, already knowing wind, that was wild…
“You seem to know a lot about how this works.” Yamato-san mused. “How is that?”
“I had a good teacher.” At that Shaeula puffed out her chest, and Yamato-san noticed.
“I see. A spiritual being. That makes so sense.” He then looked at Ren-san. “That mirror. It seems to be so sort of light-related spiritual treasure, is it not?”
“It is.” Ren-san said, earning him a scowl from Eri at his loose tongue. “It can store light and darkness energies for later use, and…”
“I don’t think we need to go into that, do we?” Eri cut him off. “If you have a loose tongue, Hinata might co cut it out.”
Ren-san flinched at that. Seriously, I doubt she’d go that far, but… Hinata does really want to be more discreet, and she’s right. Certain information such as kami and elents are going to be well known anyway, but specifics like the mirror should be kept under wraps… “Now, we are all allies here, right?” I said in a friendly manner. “Yes, the mirror is useful, but it’s only a training aid.”
“Really?” Yamato-san asked, frowning again. “Well, as a Chosen of Kannon and bearer of a long history of faith, perhaps you should entrust it to , as my Territory has a great abundance of light elent, as you can see.”
Oh yeah. My link with Haru-san was the only one that remained after the twins were exhausted by their labours, so I sent her a ssage to not say anything about her being a Candidate of Kannon too. We’ll save that for when the ti is right. Before Eri, Shaeula or the others could explode, I declined politely. “No, I’m afraid not. I’ve no interest in trading away the mirror right now. Besides, if anyone should be interested in mirrors, it’d be Princess Mikasa, right? After all, a mirror is part of the Imperial Regalia.”
Yamato-san looked like he was about to protest, when Mine-san spoke up. “Oh co on, Yamato-sama. It isn’t nice to ask to take his things, is it? I an, like… I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have him as a friend, right?” she winked at . “Let’s not fall out over sothing stupid.”
“I was just thinking I could put it to better use, as a bearer of the light…” Yamato-san said, and at that I had to chuckle.
“Well, looks like we all bear the light now.” I let a small beam of focused light shoot from my palm into the skies. Yeah, forming it into a laser like Haru-san does is the easiest way to use light elent as an attack, though I daresay using it in combination with wind as a flashbang would be good too… “But well, perhaps I could part with it, if you had sothing I needed more to offer in exchange.”
“I see. Well, I shall speak to my father. The ability to store light would strengthen noticeably. But I am not so churlish as to take it without permission.” He sighed. “I am not that bastard Saionji.”
As the conversation took a turn, Hyacinth rushed up to , grabbing and embracing , rubbing her face on . It was unusual for her to be so forward in company, but it seed that she was simply that excited.
“Master! Akiooo! Hyacinth did it, I changed myself! I want tooo know, how am I now? Am I stronger?” Her speech quirk was working overti, as she was extrely happy. On seeing the display, Mine-san doubled over, guffawing.
“Like, whoa, that maid is all over you. You sure are a smooth operator, Akio-kun. I’d definitely better watch out!”
“If you don’t mind.” I said, allowing Hyacinth to hug . “We are going to discuss so confidential information, so we’d like a little privacy.”
“I see. Well, do you intend to spend much longer in my Territory?” Yamato-san asked, and I shrugged.
“A little longer. That went quicker than I had expected, so we have so ti before Conclave, right?”
“I see. Well, Mine-san and I shall be over there. Co.” He spoke to her harshly, and after she pulled a face and winked at , she followed him away.
“All right…” I walked back to the group, Hyacinth still clinging to . A flare of jade flickered around us, as I created a ward of silence. “… I had a flash of Foresight. And it isn’t good.” I said. At that, Shaeula froze, aware of what had happened before.
“Do you know-know what it may be regarding?” she asked, deadly serious.
“No, but I feel it around us. I don’t think it’s targeting directly, more… those around .”
“I see. That is troubling indeed. If you were the target, Akio, I would trust-trust that you could protect yourself. We need to be very-very cautious.”
“So, when did it start?” My sis asked, being supported by Eri, her face and clothes drenched with slowly-dissolving silver sweat after her efforts.
“Just now, when you exploded with light energy.” I said, and she flinched.
“It wasn’t anything I did!” she insisted.
“I know. It’s probably a coincidence. But… look, everyone needs to be aware to watch out for danger. We’ll need to step up our guard on our parents, our friends and everyone else we are with here in Kyoto.” I advised. “Hyacinth, you’ll need to step up as well. We’ll want to bring Grulgor in on this, too. You can swap with him now.”
“Ooof course, but…” she hesitated, a tense expression on her face, and I rubbed her head, stroking her hair.
“I know. You want to know your growth first. Well, here we go…”
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